Juicy Couture isn't actually 'Couture.' Confused? - Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week July 2018

Couture meant very little to me when I was a kid. I would collect and prize the very few paper bags that had a designer’s name in print. Re-wear it like it was a purchase of my own, of which I paid a hypothetically large sum of money for. I would never own a product from its provenance, just fantasize the possibility. Yet, I still thought I had a slither of couture.

10 years later and with a wardrobe of Calvin Klein underwear and Biba purses, studying textiles and design– I realized that these labels were far from this elite sector of the fashion industry.

Paris Haute Couture Week is fast approaching and judging by the way ‘couture’ is used in conversation, many of us are still in the dark about its definition. "If it's hanging on a rack and has little sizes in it, then it's ready-to-wear" not couture, says Valerie Steele, editor of the Encyclopaedia of clothing and fashion. According to the Google dictionary, it is the ‘design and manufacture of fashionable clothes to clients specific requirements.’ The headquarters of the Federation Françoise de la Couture, the body which safeguards the made-to-measure breed of French fashion known as haute couture, is located on the rue Faubourg St.-Honoré. It is a legally protected term – fashion houses are only granted the designation by the French ministry of the Industry. No wonder there is only handful of these designers produced in Paris.

Still confused as to where the hype comes from? Lets simplfy and develop. “Couture” refers to a specific type of handcrafted, made-to-order fashion that’s even more exclusive and expensive than what’s shown during ready-to-wear fashion week. Designs must be made to order for private clients, most of which is crafted by hand. Each atelier, or fashion house, must have at least 20 members of staff. Each season, the couture house must present a collection of at least 35 runs with both daytime and evening wear to the Paris press.

To put things into perspective - only 25 designers were shown in Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week 2016 in comparison to the hundreds that are show during ready-to-wear fashion week. Moreover, only about 2,000 women in the entire world purchase haute couture. So perhaps it’s the novelty of the numbers that take their dividend of this industry that funds this line of fashion.

Okay, so maybe this niche line of fashion is narrow, but as a 17 year old A-level student, I managed to conjure up the opportunity to work backstage for a small Couture House in London. I discovered here that with the elite there is the modest. Having spoken first hand to the designers, its clear that it’s the community that comes with the fashion house that embodies ‘couture’

In conclusion, enjoy glorifying the Gigi’s and Hadid’d strutting for Chanel, but don’t assume anyone with enough money can get a hold of their outfits. If anyone can get their hands on it...it’s not couture.  

Saranya Umashankar 

Rosebery